Oral surgery involves small operations carried out inside the mouth and lips and may involve the hard and soft tissues. These include extractions of buried roots and wisdom teeth where some bone removal may be required. Soft tissue lesions such as cysts and polyps can be easily removed with simple surgery under local anaesthetic. Soft tissues may need to be reshaped surgically in order to facilitate specialist treatment such as orthodontics. Often if implants are to be placed following extraction, teeth may need to be removed using special sensitive and atraumatic techniques to preserve bone. In areas where there is insufficient bone available for implant placement, grafting procedures may be used to increase bone volume, for example to the sinuses in order to increase bone volume in the upper jaw. In cases of extreme complexity patients may occasionally need to be referred to a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon for specialised bone grafting procedures and nerve repositioning prior to implant placement.

All operations are carried out under local anaesthesia together with some form of sedation as necessary. Wounds are usually closed with sutures which are normally removed after about seven days. Some post-operative discomfort is usual but is controlled with analgesics such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. A full instruction sheet can be downloaded.

There is a dedicated operating suite at Latchford and Latchford, fully equipped for oral surgery and implant treatments.